A modern take on Job, memories of Jewish Salonica under Nazi occupation, and a theologian's musing on the natural world, faith and wonder are among the religion and spirituality books publishing in August.
Nonfiction
August 1
Religion and Sight, edited by Louise Child and Aaron Rosen (Equinox, $32 paper ISBN 978-1-78179-749-5) Sight is both celebrated as a source of revelation and demonized as a road to idolatry. Scholars from many disciplines explore, “What do we see and how do we see when we study religion.”
The Buddha's Path of Peace: A Step-By-Step Guide by Geoffrey Hunt (Equinox, $32 paper ISBN 978-1-78179-963-5). Hunt presents the life-changing way of the Buddha in the context of contemporary and everyday life, personal experience, human relationships, work, environmental concern and the human wish for peace.
Buddhist Responses to Religious Diversity: Theravada and Tibetan Perspectives, edited by Douglas Duckworth, Elizabeth Harris and Abraham Velez de Cea (Equinox, $32 paper, ISBN 978-1-78179-905-5). Buddhist identities are being renegotiated in the age of globalization, raising questions of religious tolerance and whether only Buddhists can attain nirvana.
Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience: The Radical Significance of the Free Exercise of Religion by Jack N. Rakove (Oxford Univ., $22.95, ISBN 978-0-19-530581-4). Pulitzer winner Rakove explains why American ideas of religious freedom are more constitutionally significant than many modern commentators understand.
Well, Girl: An Inside-Out Journey to Wellness by Jami Amerine (Shiloh Run, $14.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64352-558-7). Blogger Amerine shares her own wellness routine intended to help Christian women gain confidence in their physical appearance and welcome the love of God.
Exploring Shinto edited by Michael Pye (Eqjuinox, $34 paper, ISBN 978-1-78179-960-4) Scholars delve into the ideas and divinities underlying Shinto, which permeates the religious landscape of Japan and is a major key to the understanding of Japanese culture and society.
August 4
Job: A New Translation by Edward L. Greenstein (Yale, $18 paper ISBN 978-0-300-25524-9). A leading authority on Job offers a major reinterpretation based on nearly half a century of study.
Born to Wonder: Exploring Our Deepest Questions— Why Are We Here and Why Does It Matter? by Alister McGrath (Tyndale Momentum, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-4964-3620-7). The Oxford scholar and theologian explores the deepest mysteries of life itself. The experience and examination of wonder fuels “much of humanity’s creativity and its search for understanding.”
Searching for the Messiah: Unlocking the “Psalms of Solomon” and Humanity’s Quest for a Savior by Barrie Wilson (Pegasus, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-64313-450-5). Religious scholar Wilson examines the role a “messiah” plays in Western culture, tracing it from pre-Christian roots through to modern interpretations of a savior.
The Way of the Monk: How to Find Purpose, Balance, and Lasting Happiness by Guar Gopal Das (Sounds True, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-68364-662-4). Hare Krishna monk Gopal Das follows up Life’s Amazing Secrets with a collection of spiritual and life tools such as diagramming one’s passion and mission.
The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place by David Sheff (Simon and Schuster, $27, 978-1-9821-2845-6). Sheff (Beautiful Boy), spent five years interviewing a convicted killer who converted to Buddhism, and recounts how Jarvis Jay Masters came to learn, to endure, and to live with compassion on death row.
Jesus Politics: How to Win Back the Soul of America by Phil Robertson (Thomas Nelson, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-4002-1006-0). Duck Dynasty star Robertson calls on Christians to use their resources and votes to protect American religious freedoms from socialist policies.
Take Back Your Life: A 40-Day Interactive Journey to Thinking Right So You Can Live Right by Levi Lusko (Thomas Nelson, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-7852-3276-6). Lusko, a pastor, explores ways to overcome personal challenges and mental loops of anxiety and fear, including an action plan, journaling space, and Bible teachings.
Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best by Irwyn L. Ince (IVP, $16 paper, ISBN 978-0-8308-4831-7). Ince, a pastor and theologian, argues that the church is at its best when it pursues the biblical value of unity in diversity.
August 11
Mindfulness Through the Stars: A Wellness Guide by Ashley Flores (Mango, $22.95, ISBN 978-1-64250-311-1). An astrology book written by an African-American Latina YouTuber and zodiac expert with a different perspective than Western astrology.
Cleanse Your Body, Reveal Your Soul: Sustainable Well-Being Through the Ancient Power of Ayurveda Panchakarma Therapy by Judith E. Pentz (Mango, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64250-378-4). Psychiatrist Pentz details her travels to Nagpur, India, and what she learned of Ayurvedic Panchakarma detoxicification and rejuvenation therapy.
A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva by Ngawang Tenzin Norbu, trans. by Christopher Stagg (Snow Lion, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-55939-491-8). Norbu offers a new translation and commentary to the central Mahayana text The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas.
August 15
Antoine Frédéric Ozanam by Raymond Sickinger, Univ. Notre Dame, $38 paperback ISBN 978-0-268-10143-5). Sickinger, history and classics chair at Providence College, unveils the life of an early-19th-century Catholic scholar, and the principal founder of the lay Catholic charity St. Vincent de Paul.
August 18
S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight by Daniel Stuart (Shambhala, $19.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-61180-818-6). A biography of S. N. Goenka, one of the most influential meditation masters of the twentieth century.
Dreams of Light: The Profound Daytime Practice of Lucid Dreaming by Andrew Holecek (Sounds True, $18.99 paper ISBN 978-1-68364-435-4). Holecek leads a step-by-step guide to the insights, meditations, and actions that help people realize the dreamlike nature of life.
Emerging Gender Identities: Understanding the Diverse Experiences of Today’s Youth by Mark Yarhouse and Julie Sadusky (Brazos, $19,99 paper, ISBN 978-1-58743-434-1). The authors offer a measured Christian response to the diverse gender identities being embraced by an increasing number of adolescents.
Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now by Brenda Salter McNeil (Brazos, $19.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-58743-447-1). McNeil offers a Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice and challenging the status quo.
August 25
Ancient Jewish and Christian Scriptures: New Developments in Canon Controversy by John J. Collins, Craig, A. Evans, and Lee Martin McDonald (WJK, $40 paper, ISBN 978-0-664-26597-7) The authors delve in to the reasons writings are included or excluded from the canon.
Talking Until Nightfall: Remembering Jewish Salonica, 1941–44 by Isaac Matarasso, trans. by Pauline Matarasso (Bloomsbury Continuum, $28, ISBN 978-1-4729-7588-1) Matarasso provides a multi-generational account of the Nazi occupation of Salonica, shedding light on the little-known story of the Holocaust in Northern Greece.
Welcoming and Affirming: A Guide to Supporting and Working with Lgbtq+ Christian Youth, edited by Leigh Finke (Broadleaf, $18.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-5064-6498-5). The writers offer concrete Christian tools for dealing with urgent questions about gender, sexuality, mental health and more.
After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity by David Gushee (WJK, $19 paper, ISBN 978-0-664-26611-0). Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics, offers a way for disillusioned evangelicals, unhappy with the political turn their leaders have taken, to find a relationship with Christ and an intellectually cogent, morally robust evangelicalism.
From Widows to Warriors: Women's Stories from the Old Testament by Lynn Japina (WJK, $18, ISBN 978-0-664-26569-4). Japina delves into the lives of women such as Eve, Ruth, Deborah, and Yael, presenting them as complex, sometimes flawed, fierce or tragic in their “messy, yet redeemable, humanity” according to the publisher. A look at New Testament women follows in September.
Fiction
August 1
The Soldier’s Lady: 4 Stories of Frontier Adventures by Susanne Dietze et al. (Barbour, $14.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64352-605-8). Dietze features four stories of women on America’s frontier forts trying to bring civility and order to stubborn men.
Sea Glass Castle by T.I. Lowe (Tyndale, $7.99, ISBN 978-1-4964-4050-1). In Lowe's tale, single mother Sophia Prescott, still mending from the embarrassment of a highly publicized divorce, returns to her support network in Sunset Cove, S.C.
The Black Midnight by Kathleen Y’Barbo (Barbour $12.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-64352-595-2) Book 7 in the True Colors series brings a detective out of retirement to see if unsolved murders in Texas might connect to killings in London in 1899.
August 4
A Life Once Dreamed by Rachel Fordham (Revell, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-3539-5) Fordham (Yours Truly, Thomas) portrays a young woman fleeing her secrets. But her new life in a dusty 1880s western town as an old maid schoolteacher is threatened when a man from her past arrives.
Acceptable Risk by Lynette Eason (Revell, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-2935-6). Eason pens a nail-biting adventure of a military journalist whose search for the truth about her brother's death could get her killed as well.
A Dazzle of Diamonds by Liz Johnson (Revell, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-8007-2942-4) An events manager struggles with love – and the pressures of a local social matriarch to make the right choice.
August 8
Love and a Little White Lie by Tammy L. Gray (Bethany Aug. 8, $15.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-7642-3795-9). When Gray's heroine, skeptic January, takes a job at her aunt’s church, it’s a minor deception—until she meets the church’s guitarist and sparks fly.
August 25
Jeb’s Wife by Patricia Johns (Zebra, $7.99, mass market, ISBN 978-1-4201-4913-5). An Amish woman, who was unable to give her ex-husband the children he desires, embarks on a marriage with the gruff farmer next door.
